No Second Troy

by William Butler Yeats

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Helen of Troy

Said to have been the most beautiful woman, she was the reason behind the destruction of Troy in Homer's The Illiad. This poem is kind of saying, what does she have to do now. Most poems written about Helen for after the destruction of Troy mostly show her as a very vein woman who only cares about her looks. Some have made her sympathetic, but not many. This would be good to look at the different ways she is conveyed in different poems and give reasons to why she might have been conveyed that way.